Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for February 11, 2023

I saw a rotary phone in an antique store a few months ago. They were asking $65.

I have a rotary phone and two crank operated phones on display in my living room.The first telephone I talked on was an oak cased crank wall phone.

And the first cellphone has been replaced by countless new and improved (more technically challenging) each with more and more ways to gather our personal data.

Those old Bakelite phones made for a nice blunt object, too.

I remember the last rotary phone I used.. it was in my mother’s house and I remember going the the store to buy a new touch tone phone to replace it. This was shortly after the AT&T breakup, and actually owning a phone was a new thing (US). The old phone was a wall mounted version, and so used that the finger holes in the dial showed significant wear, and the friction motor that regulated the return speed was dragging horribly. It was hard to dial (my mother’s complaint) and the return speed was very slow. That it still worked was a testament to the robustness of the old pulse coding systems.

If u want some belly laughs,go online,Google “kids and telephones” and enjoy…..

At least people didn’t drive with these phones.

I remember party lines. A way different meaning in the fifties.